The Public Relations Officer of the ECOWAS military intervention in the Gambia, Commander Michael A. Larpi has stated that everything they do in the Gambia is part of their intervention mandate and that ECOWAS is monitoring them.
He clarified that it is not part of their mandate to interfere in the functions and responsibilities of The Gambian security forces, adding that the relationship between them and the Gambia Armed Forces is cordial. The GAF hosts them in Fajara, and they’re pleased with their hospitality.
Commander Michael A. Larpi said these words in an interview with Fatu Network, during the Senegalese ECOMIG soldier’s independence celebration at their headquarters in Fajara. Quizzed further, he aired that most of their operations is jointly conducted with the Gambia Armed Forces. “The Gambia is a sovereign nation. Both the Armed Forces and the police are working very well and our intervention in the country has not taken away their functions and responsibilities, nor interfered with them, but rather we do joint operations with them”
When asked about the duration of their stay in the country, the PRO answered that they have a mandate, and that ECOWAS has the power to extend or call it off.
“We the soldiers in the mission cannot determine when we should leave, but I believe that ECOWAS monitors progress and decisions would be based on what they advise.According to him, ECOMIG has not been given the responsibility to reform the Gambia Army, and he insisted that anything they did was in conjunction. He finally said that the ECOMIIG troops are not sponsored by The Gambia government.
Commander Larpi is Ghanaian, and he was a journalist before he joined the army.
